Electric dust collectors have found wide use in various fields of industry in view of the fact that an electric dust collector can dispose of a large amount of dust-laden gases with a relatively small pressure loss and can remove very small dust particles (of the order of micron size).
In conventional electric dust collectors, it is relatively easy to clean the dust collecting electrode plates by blowing gases and cleaning liquids against them. However, it has been difficult to remove dust from thread-like discharge wires. The hammering technique widely used on electrode plates in which mechanical vibration is applied to such plates cannot be employed for the discharge wires. As the dust accumulates on the wires, the discharging function of the discharge wires deteriorates.
In order to cope with these problems, the following measures have been adopted in conventional dust collectors. As shown in FIG. 1, a bead-like slider 9o is slidably fitted over each of the discharge wires 4 which are vertically stretched with their ends secured to frame 2'. Periodically, each discharge wire unit is disassembled from its frame and is manually turned upside-down to cause the sliders to fall along the discharge wires by gravity, thereby removing the dust.
However, because dozens of discharge wires 4 are secured to the frame 2', the need to remove each such unit for cleaning places substantial limitations on the design of dust collecting electrode plates and like mechanisms. Furthermore, it requires skill to reinstall the discharge wire unit in place with accuracy. This conventional dust collector also has the disadvantage in that repair of the units is often required after the cleaning is carried out due to inadvertent damage thereof.